Stan Zukin, the president of Zukin Realty, a real estate company that helped transform West Chester into the thriving borough that it is today, has died at the age of 77.

“Stan, the founder of our company, was the epitome of a hard-working leader to all who knew him, and made it his mission to embrace and enrich the West Chester community that he loved so dearly,” Zukin Realty wrote on Facebook. “He loved his family, his work, and his employees, whom he treated like family.”

The Philadelphia native graduated from Olney High School and Temple University’s School of Pharmacy. When he was 55, Zukin retired from practicing pharmacy and expanded his already-successful real estate holdings in West Chester and the surrounding communities.

“I’ll never forget the first time I met Stan,” said Mark Yoder, the CEO of the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce who is originally from Chicago. “We were doing our annual Business Card Exchange at Zukin Realty, and his office was packed to the gills with food from all the restaurants he helped bring to town.

“People were glued to him when he was speaking, because he was so interesting and had a way of telling a story. He was just a thoughtful, creative, gregarious guy, and I enjoyed every conversation and every interaction I had with him.”

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When Malcolm Johnstone, the Executive Director of the West Chester Business Improvement District (BID), first arrived in Chester County, Zukin was one of the first people he met.

“My wife and I – and our dogs – had pretty much been living out of a truck for two weeks by the time we got here,” said Johnstone, who came to the area in 2001 after serving as manager of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association in Idaho. “Within minutes, Stan found us a nice carriage house in Kennett Square that we lived in for a few months, until something more permanent became available in West Chester.”

Johnstone will always remember being captivated by Zukin’s imagination.

“Stan was a man of dreams,” he said. “He was a big-picture kind of guy. Our conversations could go on forever. As far as I know, he never had an office with a door on it. If he did, it was always open. He was always welcoming. There aren’t many people like that anymore.

“I know hundreds of people through my work, but only have the cell numbers of a dozen or so, and I had his.”

Zukin and his wife Elsa have three children – Wayne, Scott, and Lori – and seven grandchildren.

“Stan had a passion for this area,” said Yoder, “and was driven to make West Chester the best it could possibly be.”

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